Chapter Sixteen

Naruto yawned as he stretched his arms, his shoulders popping a bit as he sighed with contentment. He rubbed his eye with the back of his hand before looking at the room around him. It had taken him a few days to get used to sleeping in a room that wasn't in the house he and Cousin Ken used, but it was still a nice room. According to Tomo, this was a guest room her brother used when he slept over.

Naruto's nose twitched at the smell that had originally woken him. He cast off his blanket and bolted for the small kitchen of the house. "Tomo's" house was a small thing with only a living room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms, but she seemed to like it well enough since she lived by herself. Naruto found her at the stove cooking bacon, a plate of scrambled eggs, toast with honey, and cooling strips of Naruto's new second favorite food — bacon! — already laid out.

"Good morning," Tomoko smiled, waving her spatula instead of her hand.

"Morning," Naruto greeted before diving into his food.

Tomoko joined him with a plate of her own, savoring the first few sips of a cup of coffee and just watching the child eat first. She chuckled as memories of her brother at that age came to the forefront of her mind, deciding that boys were all the same when it came to food. With that thought, she dove into her own breakfast.

"So, Little Kit," she began, smiling a bit wider when Naruto looked up with bits of egg all over his face, "how about we do something a little bit different for your training today?" As per Ken's request, Tomoko had taken over Naruto's extracurricular training in his absence. "Red" had left a general synopsis on what he wanted Naruto to work on, but Tomoko had been following that for a few days and had an idea of her own.

"Different how?" Naruto asked.

"You still want to take Uncle's place as the Hokage, right?" she asked, ironically, since he'd been talking about it just the other day. Naruto nodded fiercely, the shine in his eyes whenever his dream came up flaring brightly. "We'll be doing something 'different' as in showing you an example of what a jonin can do," Tomoko explained. She gave a smile that showed teeth, the expression intimidating. "And you'll be meeting some of my family."

After breakfast had finished and Tomoko had gotten the kid into some clean clothes, she led the way to a Sarutobi clan private training ground. All major clans — those that were the largest, most famous, and had maintained ties to the Leaf village the longest — had at least one private training ground reserved out of the public eye close to their compound. They were usually used for training in clan techniques, the skills and abilities that defined a clan and made them unique assets to the village. Smaller and younger clans could commission them to be built, too, but it was an expensive prospect; which meant a clan had to grow quite a bit from an immediate family to comfortably earn one.

The training ground that Tomoko led Naruto to looked odd to the boy. It had clusters of huge trees separated by tracts of open land peppered with stones and boulders. He tilted his head at the sight, something so different from what he was used to within the village walls.

"Like it?" Tomoko asked, her naginata conspicuously slung over her shoulders. "Uncle's father, Sasuke Sarutobi, was the clan leader when the village was founded. He had this place reserved for our training and modelled it on the home of the monkey tribe, the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers. Since we have a strong bond with that summon tribe, he meant it as a sign of respect to them."

"That sounds like a nice place," Naruto commented without thinking. "Can we go there?"

Tomoko laughed at the innocent comment. "Well, first off, it's a really long journey there on foot. Now those who have signed a summoning contract can be brought there immediately, but since you haven't that won't work." Her smile faded a bit. "Secondly, I doubt the village elders would want you leaving because of your, y'know, special job."

Naruto practically wilted at that. He hadn't considered that his job would keep him in the village forever.

"Hey, Kit, listen to me," Tomoko said, kneeling before Naruto and lifting his chin to meet her eyes. "It's not forever. When you graduate and are put on a team, you'll be allowed to leave the village for missions and stuff. It's just that you can't quite defend yourself yet, and that could make you a target if anyone finds out about your special job. Okay?" Naruto thought it over and nodded. "Good," Tomoko smiled. "Now, let's warm up. The family I told you about should be here pretty soon."

Tomoko handed Naruto a wooden training kunai and instructed him to work on his forms. He did so with his usual gusto, but was occasionally distracted by Tomoko working a few yards away. He watched with stars in his eyes as she spun her naginata in whirling motions that blurred and drew the eye before slashing and lunging, then back to the spinning moves. She caught him staring a few times and reminded him that a Hokage had to be good with all the basics, which always got him back on track … for a while.

Finally, after a good twenty minutes, two other figures emerged from the trees, both marked as Sarutobi clansmen by their dark hair and tanned skin — not to mention the clan crest on their armbands. One wore his headband like a bandana and had dark sclera, while the other had a large nose and thin sideburns.

"Having fun, Cousin?" the sideburned one asked jovially.

Tomoko whirled her polearm into a guard stance before driving it into the ground blade-up with a smile. "Hideyoshi, Kazan — glad you could make it." She stepped up to Naruto's side and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This is Naruto Uzumaki. Perhaps you've heard of him?"

Both shinobi sweatdropped as habitual disregard for the boy blamed for the Nine-Tails Attack warred with their shame at such feelings. After a few moments, the one with the sideburns fixed a smile and held out a palm for Naruto to high-five. "Nice to meet you, Naruto. I'm Kazan, Koko's favorite cousin," he nodded toward the other, "and that's Hideyoshi." The other one waved with a neutral look.

"Hi, I'm Naruto! Tomo's looking out for me while my older cousin's doing the test thingy for a promotion!"

"Tomo?" Kazan asked with a grin. "Oh, that's even better than 'Koko'."

"Okay, enough of that," Tomoko waved off with a faint blush. "I'm guessing you're wondering why I asked you here."

"Well, Hideyoshi was mostly wondering why you brought some kid to the clan grounds, but yeah. I'm curious about that, too." Hideyoshi simply nodded, his arms loosely crossed and his gaze contemplative.

"Naruto here dreams of becoming Hokage one day," Tomoko explained. "I thought it might be a good idea to show him what jonin can do. Y'know, give him something a little more solid to strive for."

The two looked at each other. "And you can't show him that yourself?" Kazan asked.

"I'm just a chunin," she shrugged. "You guys are actual elites." Her eyes sparkled a bit. "Plus, I know Hideyoshi is quite the showman." The dark-eyed Sarutobi leveled a faint glare at her before reluctantly nodding in agreement.

"Alright, sounds like fun," Kazan said, gesturing for Tomoko and Naruto to take a seat on a nearby boulder. The two jonin took some time to prepare before Kazan produced a pair of metal tonfa, the shaft of the weapons parallel to his forearms, and Hideyoshi unsheathed a tanto. They stood for a few moments before rushing to engage.

Hideyoshi lashed out with a series of slashes that Kazan blocked with the shafts of his tonfa, the clash of metal raining sparks before Hideyoshi disengaged and jumped back, flashing through one-handed seals and tossing a handful of shuriken that multiplied into a rain of sharpened steel. Kazan had prepared his own technique, raising a wall of stone that absorbed the attack and then crumbled to allow him to rush his opponent.

Naruto could barely keep himself still as he watched the spar continue to escalate, silently vibrating in place with excitement and rooting for whoever performed a flashy maneuver or powerful-looking technique. Tomoko, though more subtle about it, was enjoying the fight just as much. Most of all when someone broke out a Fire Release technique, which had her shrieking and giggling like a madwoman.

Several minutes into the spar, Hideyoshi disengaged and leapt away, his hands folded into the seal for shadow clones. Two clones appeared in the trademark cloud of smoke and formed hands seals before a chain of lightning formed between them. The clones bolted around the edge of the clearing with the lightning racing across its radius and forcing Kazan to jump to avoid it.

As he flew through the air, both jonin sped through identical hand seals and breathed deeply to spew tangible flames toward the other that fought against each other. The force of the struggle between Fire Release techniques was so great that it pushed Hideyoshi a few inches backward … and also boosted Kazan over the cloud of flames to descend and strike out at his clansman.

The duo focused on their weapons and hand-to-hand skills for quite some time, their skills seemingly even, until Kazan managed to hook Hideyoshi's tanto with one of his tonfa and twisted his wrist to lock it in place before striking out with the long end of his other weapon — expertly stopping just a hair's breadth from his opponent to ensure they both knew he'd won.

"Looks like I won this time," Kazan smirked goodnaturedly. Hideyoshi narrowed his eyes, a silent but very clear statement of 'This time,' before he nodded defeat and sheathed his weapon, offering a thumbs up in congratulations.

"Can he talk?" Naruto asked without thinking, still stunned by the display the Sarutobi shinobi had offered.

"He can," Tomoko replied with a grin, "he just chooses not to." She giggled at Naruto's starry-eyed look. "So, what'd you think? You think you can operate on that level?"

Naruto paled at the thought, mentally comparing his own admittedly meager skills to … all of that. Then he shrugged with his trademark toothy grin. "Maybe not now, but I'm just a kid. Gimme a few years of training and I'll make that look like a sideshow!"

"A few years?!" Kazan asked with a laugh. "Bold talk. I like this kid; he's got moxie." He looked at Tomoko and shrugged. "At any rate, this was fun, but I've gotta head out. I'm starting a long-term mission tomorrow and I need my rest. Kid, nice to meet ya and tell your redheaded cousin I said 'hey'." He offered a two-fingered wave and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Hideyoshi smiled at the two and nodded before disappearing as well.

"Whoa … How do they do that?" Naruto asked.

"It's called 'Body Flicker'," Tomoko explained as she guided Naruto back to the Sarutobi compound. "It's too advanced for you at the moment, especially given Red's reports of your control, but it vitalizes the body with a quick burst of chakra so they can cover distances really fast. When your eyes aren't focused, it can make users look like they just appear or disappear."

Naruto tilted his head. "Wait, if ninja can move so fast with that technique, then why can we actually see them when they fight?"

Tomoko chuckled at that line of questioning. "Every technique has its downsides, Naruto, and Body Flickering is no exception. Just because you can move that fast for a quick burst doesn't mean your eyes are adjusted for it. Most people who use it have to plan out their route really quickly beforehand to avoid running into something. Heck, just getting to the level to use it around the village without problems takes a lot of practice. Plus, if you do it too much too fast you can really drain your chakra."

At Naruto's sudden downcast expression, Tomoko decided to throw him a bone. "But it's not impossible to use it in combat. I know at least one Konoha shinobi mastered it enough to use it as a big part of their fighting style. It even earned him the name 'Shisui of the Body Flicker'. Rumors say he could even use it to make his afterimages into clones to hit from multiple directions."

"Cool!" Naruto cried, before he caught one word. "Wait, 'could'?"

"Yeah," Tomoko admitted. "Shisui was an Uchiha. He died right before the clan Massacre."

"What's a 'massacre'?" Naruto asked.

Tomoko bit back a curse at her slip of the tongue. How had she relaxed her guard around Naruto enough to mention such a heavy topic? Well, maybe it was the fact that her brother was almost sixteen and so had been a little more comfortable with such heavy topics for so long. "Ken's gonna yell my ear off for mentioning that," she noted wryly.

"Well now I gotta know!" Naruto grinned, bouncing in place.

Tomoko heaved a sigh. "Not here, you don't. Let me show you my favorite place in the compound and we can talk there. It's usually deserted this time of day."

"Lord Danzo," a monotone voice said.

Danzo blinked and carefully removed his paintbrush from the surface of an unfurled scroll covered with sealing script. He allowed himself to let out a heavy sigh, one of both relief that his sealing array had not been ruined by an inerrant flinch and of carefully controlled rage that he had been interrupted during this delicate process. "Report," he said tersely. If he had been interrupted, he might as well know why.

"Our spies in Hidden Grass report that Uzumaki's team has passed the first phase of the Exams and will soon enter the second," the ROOT agent revealed.

Danzo processed this information and flicked his hand to dismiss his agent, who dutifully locked the door behind him. Danzo took a deep breath to regain the serenity needed for delicate sealwork, his nose catching the heavy scent of stone and soil in this, the true headquarters of ROOT. Like its namesake, the headquarters were underground; the warehouse where he had "encountered" the Uzumaki boy was a decoy for spies.

Danzo dipped his paintbrush back into the chakra-infused ink used for sealing, carefully wiping excess off on the rim to avoid stray drops, and returned to his work. He worked on it for quite some time before allowing himself a break to have some water and dry rations for energy. True, the sealing arts were not physically demanding, but it more than made up for this in the focus and mental fortitude necessary for even the basics of the practice.

Danzo took a moment between sips of water to silently curse at the inevitability of age. While he had not been on the battlefield in years, age was still a nuisance as the efficiency of his body slowly and inexorably waned. Even with the modifications to his body with the cells of Hashirama Senju, he could not escape the passage of time.

With that thought came the source of his skill with the discipline before him: Mito Uzumaki. Oh it was true that her husband's power had made a strong impression on him, leading him to covertly support the snake Orochimaru's research with the Lord First's genetics, but what few knew was that Lady Mito had impacted him just as much.

Danzo had been one of the few that he was aware of to work out where the Nine-Tails had disappeared to after Madara had attacked the village and Lord Hashirama had driven him off, severing his control over the Fox in the process. Lady Mito had used her prowess in the sealing arts to become the Nine-Tail's first recorded jinchuriki. And even as young as Danzo had been, he had marvelled at how a simple matrix of chakra-infused ink, drawn with utmost precision, had been able to contain such a horrifically powerful force.

Naturally, he had immediately begun laying the foundation to master such a power. It was how he had eventually devised the cursed seals he placed upon his ROOT operatives that would prevent them from revealing secrets of the organization, among many others.

Brushing aside such nostalgic thoughts, likely another sign of his age, he resumed his work on this piece: a seal to disrupt and disarm the workings of other seal matrices. His meeting with the Ken boy had denied him access to Uzumaki genetic material, which he might have been able to use to slow his aging, but with the Uzumaki out of that house offered to them by Hiruzen he had a chance to send his agents to pilfer any secrets he had left behind.

Danzo couldn't help the faint grin at the realization that the boy's success in the Chunin Exams would extend his timetable. If he had passed the first phase, there was no doubt his team would pass the second. And with that would be a month to prepare for the finals … during which leaving Hidden Grass would mean disqualification. A month that ROOT would have to prepare for retrieval of Uzumaki clan secrets. When this seal was completed, it would allow his agents to enter the house unmolested and take what they could find.

What a poor shinobi … to leave such treasures so poorly guarded.

Tomoko sat with her arms wrapped around one of her legs as she regarded young Naruto. The duo sat in the Sarutobi clan's private hot spring, sporting few patrons besides them due to the time of day. In the evenings, especially, it was a popular place for clan members to unwind after training or missions.

Very few were aware of the Sarutobi clan's innate love of hot springs. Even during the Warring States Period, the Sarutobi clan would make their official headquarters near such springs whenever possible. When Konoha was founded, Sasuke Sarutobi — the clan leader at the time and father of Lord Hiruzen — had traded no small number of favors to secure the land with the second, smaller hot spring within the village walls for their compound.

Tomoko only vaguely considered this trait of her extended family as she tried to gauge Naruto's thoughts. She and Naruto, dressed in the provided tight-fitting, one-piece bathing suits with the Sarutobi clan crest on them, had spent the first ten minutes just enjoying the water, Naruto himself having never experienced hot springs before.

Tomoko had hoped that the tranquility of the mineral water would wash away her slip-up from before, but Naruto had regained some of his curious energy after adjusting to the relaxing atmosphere. He'd asked, once again, what she had meant by "massacre."

And so Tomoko had spent about twenty minutes explaining what she knew about the Downfall of the Uchiha Clan. Granted, she was by no means an expert, but she had known and worked with several Uchiha before the Massacre; she still lit a candle on the anniversary of the event for a few fellow kunoichi she had been close to.

Unlike any other time she had known him, Naruto remained quiet during her tale, perhaps understanding the gravity of the event. Tomoko was not too proud to admit that the loss of the Uchiha clan had been a great blow to the village as a whole. Not only had it left them without the police force that had been in place nearly since the village's founding, it had been the loss of an entire clan of powerful shinobi and the nearly unparalleled tool they bore: the sharingan.

As she wound down her tale with the revelation that the clan had been killed by a single person, the only survivor being Naruto's classmate Sasuke, Naruto had been almost shaking. "Just one guy took out an entire clan like that?" he asked, his voice almost … broken. "Why …?"

"No one knows for sure," Tomoko admitted. "He fled after what he did and no one has reported seeing him since. He could be dead for all we know."

Naruto was quiet for some time before he spoke again. "So Sasuke is like me and Cousin Ken," he whispered. Tomoko blinked at the words, admittedly confused by them. "His whole family was taken from him, too. And now he's alone, like I used to be before Ken came along." Naruto sniffled, tears pooling in his eyes. "No wonder he asks like such a jerk all the time. If I'd actually seen my family die like that I think I'd be just as bad."

Tomoko couldn't stop herself from drawing Naruto into a hug, his tiny body wrapped in her arms as he quietly shook and sobbed. "Maybe that's just what he needs," Tomoko whispered to him. "Someone who understands just a little bit of what he feels."

Naruto thought that over until another thought came to him and he drew away from Tomoko a little. "Cousin Ken said that the Uzumaki and the Senju came from one person. And that his brother was the ancestor of all the Uchiha. So that means … Sasuke and I are family, at least really far back." He sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes, a sad smile creasing his lips. "So he's not totally alone, either. He's my cousin, too. Kind of." He got out of the water and began to dry himself off. "And Naruto Uzumaki doesn't leave family behind, y'know! Ya better believe it!"

After they had finished at the hot spring and gotten in some more training — this time in Naruto's least-favorite task of chakra-control-by-sticky-leaf — Tomoko had offered to introduce him to someone special.

"You don't have a boyfriend, do you, Tomo?" he asked dejectedly.

Tomoko giggled. "That's sweet, Kit, but you're way too young for me," she replied.

"No, not me!" he shouted, face reddening. "I mean what about Cousin Ken! Aren't you guys gonna date and get married and stuff?"

Tomoko's face went red, too, and she giggled again, this time nervously. "That's somehow even more sweet, Naruto. But your cousin and I are just friends." She knelt down to his level. "But rest assured we'll stay friends forever, which means I'll never leave you either."

Naruto smiled at that. "So, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope," Tomoko admitted. "I'm focused on my career at the moment. Maybe in the future." She stood and took a few steps away. "But back to the point: my special friend." Tomoko turned to face Naruto and bit her left thumb to draw blood, then wove a set of five hand seals before slamming her bleeding hand to the ground. "Summoning Technique!" she cried for effect. A web of script expanded from the contact and exploded into smoke to reveal a rotund monkey.

"Greetings, boy," the monkey said. "I am Yama of the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers."

"Whoa, cool!" Naruto cried out. "And you talk, too! This is so awesome!" Naruto almost felt a light bulb form over his head as he got an idea. He bit his thumb, grunting at the sharp pain, before forming a string of random seals before clapping his hand to the grass.

Nothing happened.

"Aww, how come it didn't work?" Naruto asked with a pout.

Yama rumbled with laughter like a rock slide, accompanying Tomoko's bell-like laughs. "Kit, it takes way more than blood and random hand seals." She knelt and examined Naruto's thumb, noting with faint surprise that the cut was already almost gone. Well, that shouldn't be a surprise at all considering his heritage and "occupant." "First you have to sign a contract with a summon tribe, then you have to get the hand seals right. And that's not even getting into finding a consistent summon."

Yama narrowed his eyes and examined Naruto more closely, unable to dismiss the resemblance to another denizen of Konoha, now passed. "But if I'm right, you'll have the chance at a powerful summon contract sooner than you think," he noted.

Naruto blinked in confusion until Yama darted his fingers into the boy's hair to delicately remove a grasshopper that he promptly ate. After a few chews, he noticed Naruto stifling chuckles. "Well, I am a monkey, after all."

Naruto's laughter could be heard all through the compound.

Chapter sixteen is here! And we get a chapter back in Konoha. Rest assured that we will be trading off perspectives in the Leaf and the Chunin Exams - our lovable jinchuriki will not be abandoned again!

*The clan training grounds concept is like 95% head canons and personal worldbuilding. It was really fun to come up with that.

*We have the return of Kazan and the intro of Hideyoshi. Both are based on the line of Sarutobi shinobi that participated in the plan to trap the Ten-Tails, third and second from the far right to be exact. Both were named after real-life samurai with connections to monkeys. "Kazan" means volcano - relating to his technique of infusing fire chakra into boulders to mimic Lava Release (No, he does not have the actual kekki genkai), and Hideyoshi means "excellence" or "esteem," as suited to a member of a respected clan.

*Danzo's use of seals being inspired by Mito Uzumaki is based upon "Son of the Sannin" by Ander Arias, a most marvelous semi-AU fic. I tried to put my own spin on the idea.

*The idea of the Sarutobi clan being so fond of hot springs is inspired by the Japanese macaque, which is a heavy influence on my take on the clan along with Sun Wukong. Jigokudani Monkey Park in Japan is known for having al ocal troop of the simians that famously use the local hot springs to stay warm in the winter.

Hope this was as great as everything so far! Next time: Back to the Exams. Until then, may your inspiration flow freely!